OK, ok. I know there are other diaries about this announcement by the Bush Administration. But I feel so strongly that this should be said loudly, I am doing a diary dedicated to saying it.
This "investigation," detailed in Volvo Liberal's diary, is more than a farce. It's a power grab as the Bush Administration looks ahead to the massive government contracts sure to come.
Analysis below:
First, some snippets from the
AP article:
Buffeted by criticism over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina,
President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why -- in part to be sure the country could withstand more storms or attack.
Bush also announced he is sending Vice President
Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can.
"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," the president said after a meeting at the White House with his Cabinet on storm recovery efforts
Get that? Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way. What does that really mean? Dick Cheney is no good-government reformer. He's not the guy to send to clear out government bureaucracies and getting them to work efficiently. This isn't Al Gore's work on improving government. Dick Cheney is about power and money. He's the Fixer-in-Chief.
He's the guy to send if you are trying to roll over the state's "bureaucracies" to manage everything yourself. Think back to the stories over the weekend. There is a serious power struggle going on right now as the Bush Administration is trying to assume complete control of the reconstruction. The state is resisting, so the Bush folks are sending in the biggest gun of all, Dick Cheney.
The feds will start to portray every state effort as a "bureaucracy" that needs to be cleared out. Eventually leaving total control of how the BILLIONS are spent in Louisiana in the hands of the administration.
That's what this "investigation" is all about. Because there is a lot of political largesse to spread around in the years ahead. And the Bush Administration understands nothing like the power of the federal checkbook. Here's Bush from the article:
"This administration is not going to rest until every life is saved, until every family is reconnected, until the recovery is complete."
They won't rest "until the recovery is complete." I'll bet they won't.
Hmmm ... I wonder why Halliburton's stock is climbing so quickly ...